Diplomatic spat over Taiwan continues

The US, which has had diplomatic ties with the Peoples Republic of China since 1979, continues to fume that El Salvador decided to cut its own ties with Taiwan and establish diplomatic relations with the communist government in Beijing. Yesterday, the State Department announced that US Ambassador to El Salvador Jean Manes was being recalled to Washington:

The Department of State has called back the U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Robin Bernstein, the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Jean Manes, and the U.S. Charge d’Affaires in Panama Roxanne Cabral for consultations related to recent decisions to no longer recognize Taiwan. Our three Chiefs of Mission will meet with U.S. Government leaders to discuss ways in which the United States can support strong, independent, democratic institutions and economies throughout Central America and the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, four US Senators have introduced a bill requiring a downgrade of US relations for any government which acts adversely to Taiwan, and on August 23, the White House Press Secretary announced that the US was reevaluating its relationship with El Salvador as a result of the pivot towards the Peoples Republic by the FMLN government.

The diplomatic tensions have also led to the cancellation, or at least postponement, of a security conference between Washington and Central American nations according to the Washington Post:

A high-level conference intended to highlight U.S. security cooperation with Mexico and Central America was abruptly called off Friday amid flaring diplomatic tensions with El Salvador and Guatemala, according to two Trump administration officials.

Top diplomats and security officials from the United States, Mexico and Central America were scheduled to meet next week in Washington as a follow-up to the “Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America,” held in Miami last year and attended by then-Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly and Rex Tillerson, the U.S. secretary of state at the time.

The talks scheduled for next week were scrapped after the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala notified U.S. diplomats that their representatives would not travel to Washington,

Since Washington has no real discernible policy regarding its relationships with Latin America (other than "build that wall"), Taiwan's friends in Washington have been able to create an issue where there should be none.